northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's another wild legume I saw a couple months ago, a Common Birds-foot Trefoil . There are some similarities to the Purple Crownvetch I talked about yesterday: They're both considered invasive in North America, and are native to Eurasia/Africa. Their flowers have a similar shape to them. They're both legumes that are sometimes used as a food source for ruminants like cows, goats, and sheep. Both have root systems that are conducive to erosion control. Note that although I suspect this is Common Birds-foot Trefoil, iNaturalist didn't give me an ID for this picture. I suspect that's because there are some other Birds-foot Trefoils that could be found around here. The leaves look wrong for this to be Narrow-leaf Birds-foot Trefoil and Horseshoe Vetch, but the difference between this and Greater Birds-foot Trefoil seems a bit more subtle (being taller and being a grayish-green in color). Lepidopterists say they rarely see butterflies on this wildflower, though the

Here's a Purple Crownvetch I came across in late spring. The funky-looking light purple flowers and the pinnated leaves may get your attention, but these guys are considered fierce invaders. Native to Eurasian/Africa, these guys have tough, abundant, and deep roots that make them good at erosion control (which is why they were introduced to North America). Unfortunately they readily go beyond their erosion control mission, and can crowd out more beneficial native plants. If you talk to different herbivorous animals, they'll definitely give you different stories about this legume . Horses will warn you not to eat it since it's poisonous, but ruminants like cows and deer will tell you that it's a tasty source of protein and other nutrients. (Since us humans aren't ruminants, you probably shouldn't be grazing on this yourself.) June 11, 2021 at Washington Valley Park Photo 136371817, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's an American Toad I met a couple months ago. Or at least I'm pretty sure it's an American Toad. Despite providing what looks like a pretty clear picture of the toad, nobody on iNaturalist has confirmed (or refuted) my contention that this is an American Toad. The only other contender in NJ for an ID is the Fowler's Toad . While I have better head shots of this toad, the view below is probably the one that best distinguishes its species. First I need to tell you what the parotoid glands are. These are the pair of light-colored bulges above the shoulders and behind the eyes. Overall they're probably a little smaller but longer than the toad's eyes. They store toxins that the toad can secrete to make themselves bad-tasting and somewhat poisonous. (They might be the reason we humans don't often eat toads.) Though both species of toad has parotoid glands, in the American Toad the glands do not touch the ridges behind the toad's eyes. And it looks to m

I saw this Great Blue Heron further offshore than I usually do. I frequently see them in the water, though usually they're walking/standing just off the shore in shallow water. At the time I assumed that the water was surprisingly shallow all the way between the heron and the shore, and that the heron (probably slowly and perhaps cautiously) simply walked out there. While this interpretation is certainly plausible, I'm unsure there's a navigable walkway from there to the shore, or that the heron would be able to find such a walkway if it does exist. And I haven't known Great Blue Herons to swim; they are considered wading birds, after all. But apparently Great Blue Herons can swim if they want to, as this video and this article attest. I've seen videos of eagles and owls swimming when necessary, though they look fairly awkward doing it. At least in the video, the Great Blue Heron looks fairly natural doing it, and it even looks like they can take to flight from w

A mother Wood Duck was paddling around the Washington Valley Reservoir with ducklings about 2 months back. One problem with me blogging a couple months after taking a picture is that the ducklings probably look a lot older today; they might be adult sized by now. Still, ducklings (and goslings) are pretty photogenic. It's doubtful that this duck only hatched 4 eggs this year; my impression is that duckling mortality is pretty high, and this is just her surviving clutch. There was a Great Blue Heron around; I suspect the heron would eat a duckling if one got too close. I suspect that the ducklings are perfectly safe in deeper water though, since herons fish/hunt by wading rather than swimming. On the other hand, the mother duck didn't seem particularly concerned to see the heron in the area, and the heron didn't appear to be giving the ducklings its attention. Still, I'm sure there are life-and-death dramas surrounding the lives of these ducklings. June 11, 2021 at Was

I'm doing a Throwback Thursday picture today from autumn of 2011; see if you can find the goose in this picture. 😃 At the time, this was probably the most Canada Geese I had seen in a single place. (Since then, I think a meadow at the Plainsboro Preserve had the biggest Canada Goose population I've seen.) I tried to identify a non-Canada Goose in the picture and try a where's Waldo ("where's Robby the Robin?", "where's Donald Duck?") sort of contest, but wasn't able to find any. The geese really were dominating this pond. Though these geese are too populous to be good for animal diversity here in NJ, they are kind of handsome looking birds. If they were rare, I could imagine people ooo-ing and ahh-ing over them. November 19, 20211 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 11329538, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

There's a spot at Washington Valley Park where I can usually find Turkey Vultures . I wouldn't be shocked if some Black Vultures hang out there too, but most of the time when I get an ID it's a Turkey Vulture that I see in this spot. Seeing a little bit of red on the head easily distinguishes this Turkey Vulture from its Black Vulture cousins. I'm not sure why this spot is popular with vultures, though I suspect it's one of the higher spots in the park and it's adjacent to grassy areas. These may combine to give the vultures a relatively good view of the landscape, possibly helping them spot a dead animal before getting airborne. And it's not the busiest part of the park, so there are relatively few of those scary humans coming by. But AFAIK it's not a hotbed of dying animals. June 11, 2021 at Washington Valley Park Photo 136371147, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's the third Mourning Cloak I met this year. Unlike this earlier one , this butterfly has a much more tattered look to it. Although my recollection of this encounter was that the butterfly was moving around, in the picture it looks like there's webbing attached to the wings and two branches. Though clearly it's not caught in a classic spider web, perhaps it was attacked/killed by something more like a crab spider that doesn't make webs to catch prey? Even if it was still alive, it's easy to think it was approaching the end of its life. This is a species that can survive a NJ winter and live around a year, though it probably takes a toll on their bodies. I was a little surprised that I got an ID from iNaturalist on this one given that the distinctive light yellow/gold border is one of the casualties of the tattered wings. I guess that there are more people who recognized butterflies than there are people who recognize harvestmen . June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Ph

Here's a Question Mark I met a couple months ago. I've talked before about this species, so today I'll just relay a little " who's on first " conversation I had with someone at Duke Farms once (long before this picture was taken). I believe this was at the end of one of the tree ID hikes that Duke Farms used to routinely have. The exchange went something like this: A Question Mark butterfly lands on the road. Other person: Does anybody know what kind of butterfly that is? Me: That's a Question Mark. Other person: Oh, I was hoping you knew what kind of butterfly it is. Me: I do know what kind of butterfly it is. The name is a Question Mark. Other person: So you recognize the butterfly but don't know the name. I want to know the name of the butterfly. Me: The butterfly has a mark on its underwing that resembles the punctuation mark called a question mark, and so it's named the Question Mark. It is a cousin to other butterflies called Commas. Other

Back in June I saw these two animal types in the same neighborhood. A Great Blue Heron is foraging along the shore, and a group of turtles (some are Eastern Painted Turtles , though I'm getting more of a Northern Red-bellied Cooter vibe from a couple of them) basking a short distance offshore. It's fairly common to see herons and turtles around one another. Although I'm told that Great Blue Herons will eat just about any animal they can swallow, I suspect that once a turtle reaches a certain size, both they and the herons know that the heron won't be able to swallow them shell-and-all. This is probably the reason the turtles tolerated the presence of the heron at a distance where they'd almost certainly have dived into the water if I were there instead of the heron. The turtles would be more at risk from a Bald Eagle. Eagles have the beak and talons to get around the shell problem by tearing the turtle apart. And I don't know why a Red-tailed Hawk couldn't

Here's a youngish male Eastern Pondhawk I met earlier in the year. The males and females start life looking as pretty similar primarily green critters, but as they mature the males get covered in a light blue pruinose. You can still see a little green on this guy's abdomen; I think that'll eventually go away. The green on the thorax will probably be there for life. This was my first photo of this species of 2021, though they're pretty common and since then I've gotten lots of other pictures of them. Fun Fact: The Eastern Pondhawk isn't a hawk at all! They're actually dragonflies! 😉 June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 136369702, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Blue Jay I met a couple months ago. Though these guys abundance, vivid color, and noisiness make Blue Jays one of the easiest birds to spot, I don't really get a lot of pictures of them. As corvids, they're probably smart enough to be leery of humans, and tend to move around quite a bit making it harder to focus a camera. This picture came out pretty good though. Blue Jays aren't versatile mimics - they're unlikely to imitate other passerines - but they are considered to do an excellent imitation of at least 2 birds: Red-tailed Hawks and Red-shouldered Hawks . It's possible they developed this as a warning call, though they might use it to scare other birds away from a good food source too. Certainly this call will get the attention of most birds (and birdwatchers) in the area. I talk a lot about species that exhibit sexual dimorphism , where color or size easily distinguish the males from the females. Blue Jays are a good example of the opposite, mon

I was looking through my June pictures and noticed this fella in there. The picture seemed pretty good, so my plan was to talk a little about the species. I was a little surprised to find that not only does the picture lack a species identification in iNaturalist , but nobody would even confirm that this is a harvestman . Despite this lack of an authoritative identification, I've chosen to blunder ahead and talk about what I'm pretty sure this is. Part of the lack of an ID may be related to the name I had for these arthropods when I was growing up; we called them daddy longlegs . Unfortunately the daddy longlegs name is overused to the point of being almost useless. People use it to refer to not only harvestmen (non-spider arachnids), but also cellar spiders (which actually are spiders) and crane flies (which are winged insects). (Admittedly they all have long legs.) Crane flies may share a name with the two types of arachnids, but with 6 legs and a pair of wings they're

Here's a Red Admiral butterfly I met in late spring. As I suggested in an earlier post , a better name for them might be an Orange Admirable. (They were almost certainly named before we defined orange as a separate color from red, and "admiral" is probably a corruption of the term "admirable".) I've occasionally seen these butterflies together, but most of the time I see the lone Red Admiral. At least the males are considered pretty territorial, so seeing only one male in an area probably makes sense. This is a butterfly that will sometimes land on people. I suspect that they're males looking to drink up some sweat; this is another version of mud-puddling behavior . June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 136368803, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I met yet another Eastern Musk Turtle about 2 months ago. This was the first spring that I was retired  and  a pandemic wasn't shutting down most parks and related areas, which is presumably why I recorded my first 3 confirmed musk turtle pictures. Eastern Musk Turtles aren't believed to be faring poorly in New Jersey, though they're a little hard to spot because they spend a lot of time in the water. A few more facts about them: They can emit a musky-smelling liquid from a scent gland, but it's not for romance. Similar to skunks, it's intended to drive off predators. This is why another name for them is the unflattering "stinkpot". Surprisingly for a turtle that's described as "almost entirely aquatic", they're also described as poor swimmers.  What they seem to be better at than most turtles is probably tree-climbing. They are (at least in New Jersey) the most likely turtle species to fall into your canoe. I'm assuming they climbed

Here's a Great Blue Heron I met a couple months back. (Despite the holes in the branches and that impressive beak, this is not a giant woodpecker.) Most of the time I'll see these herons hunting/fishing in shallow water or just out of the water. (In this picture, the branches themselves are over water.) I'm assuming a perch like this serves a couple purposes: It's relatively safe from attack from land animals (dogs, coyotes, etc.) and maybe snapping turtles being out of water but surrounded by water. (My understanding is that the Golden Eagle is the only bird that will routinely prey on these largish birds, so attacks from the sky are probably rare in most places and virtually unheard of at Duke Farms.) Being this close to the water may allow the heron to spot promising areas when it does decide to rustle up a meal, and the perch probably does give the heron a good vantagepoint to spot both dangers and scary non-dangers (like photographers). June 5, 2021 at Duke Farms

Here's an Eastern Chipmunk I met. The chipmunk was unable to say hello, partly because that's not in their vocalization repertoire and partly because its mouth was full. It appears to be mostly (entirely?) leaves in the chipmunk's mouth. They don't eat leaves, so I'm assuming this is a female looking to build a nest for little baby chipmunks. If you've never seen a chipmunk nest, it's probably because you're not doing enough digging; a chipmunk nest is part of their burrow. If this is a male chipmunk, it's less clear what's going on. Maybe he lost a bet, or another chipmunk double dog dared him to put all those leaves into his mouth. (I still find the female nest-building to be the more plausible theory.) June 5, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 136368439, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Gray Catbird I met. While sometimes I'm just using a photograph to introduce a topic, this picture came out pretty well. The dark gray cap stands out against the light gray elsewhere, and you can even see a hint of the rufous coloring on the undertail, usually only seen inflight. These are birds that speak their mind. Their squawky vocalizations remind people of a cat's call, though I doubt it's ever fooled a single cat. Though this fella was out in the open, catbirds will sometimes squawk from dense foliage. (If you ever think a thicket is squawking at you, there could be a catbird in there.) They are officially mimics; they're even related to our most-heard mimic, the Northern Mockingbird ; in some circles the Gray Catbird is actually called the Slate-colored Mockingbird. Unlike their cousins though, the Gray Catbird wants to have nothing to do with our winters. I only see them in warmer months (though supposedly a few of isolated individuals do stick ar

Here's a False Milkweed Bug I met a couple months back.  These guys have aposematic coloring but in their case it's misleading. As insects without a strong physical defense and that's not poisonous, they are advertising that they're dangerous to eat even though they're not. What they do have going for them is they look like (and are actually related to) the poisonous Large Milkweed Bug (a very common bug around me) and the Small Milkweed Bug (which is less common but looks even more similar to the False Milkweed Bug). This is called Batesian mimicry , basically impersonation a dangerous species when you're not dangerous. I don't think False Milkweed Bugs have been studied enough to know why they look the way they do. Did they evolve their red coloring so they'd look like their poisonous cousins? Or did their ancestors eat milkweed, develop their red coloring, and then evolve to eat a non-milkweed diet? Interestingly the Large Milkweed Bug eats exclusiv

Meet a Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle !  When I saw this beetle, my first thought was that this was some sort of ladybug; aphids love eating milkweed, and ladybugs love eating aphids. Of course, I didn't see aphids on this milkweed, but I just chalked it up to a ladybug that was performing due diligence, making sure this milkweed didn't have a meal. But apparently this is a completely different type of beetle, one that eats the milkweed plant itself. Though their most frequently used common name seems to imply they exclusively feed on Swamp Milkweed, they will actually eat most (all?) of our milkweeds, and their second most frequently used common name is actually the broader Milkweed Leaf Beetle. Though they have a different look, they're related to another eater of poisonous plants, the Dogbane Leaf Beetle . Note the red coloring. As an eater of a poisonous plants, this beetle is trying to advertise to predators that it too is poisonous. This is known as aposematism . Milkweed

Here's one of our Widow Skimmer dragonflies. If this is a mature adult, she's a female; the male would have white patches just past the black on its wings. As with virtually all animals, the gender doesn't affect their name. The males are not called Widower Skimmers, just like male Painted Lady butterflies aren't Painted Gentlemen, and Belted Kingfisher female birds aren't Belted Queenfishers. This was the first photo I got this year of a Widow Skimmer, though later in the year I saw them quite a bit. (If you hate pictures of Widow Skimmers, you're going to have a rough time reading this blog over the next month or so.) June 5, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 136367992, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Rabbits are fairly common in my area, and AFAIK they are Eastern Cottontails , though 2 very close relatives potentially live in New Jersey: New England Cottontail and Appalachian Cottontail . (They're not only close relatives, but look very similar. To distinguish them authoritatively, be prepared to perform a DNA test.) Though they can live up to 9 years in captivity, it sounds like you're almost never going to meet one that old; in the wild they're usually going to live 1-3 years. There are a number of reasons for this: Lots of animals eat them. Cats, dogs, raccoons, foxes, coyotes, weasels, minks, snakes, hawks, and owls all consider rabbits to be an excellent meal. They're weakened by lots of common parasites like fleas, ticks, lice, worms, and flies. Cars take a toll on them. Our over-population of deer depletes many of their food sources. Still, their ability to breed means they replenish their numbers well enough that you're fairly likely to run across this

Here's a Zabulon Skipper I met at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve. This is a male; the females look a lot different. (There's that sexual dimorphism at work again.) While the males don't look much like the females, they do look quite similar to the Hobomok Skipper . The biggest difference is that the Hobomok would have darker veins going through those orangish patches. It's easy to think these butterflies are pretty close relatives. I meet these guys a lot. June 2, 2021 at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 136367674, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Red-winged Blackbird I met a couple months back. The astute observer will notice that isn't black and doesn't have red on the wings. This is the issue with identifying many female birds, especially when the species was named after the much-differently-feathered males, a form of sexual dimorphism .  These birds can be misinterpreted as European Starlings or sparrows or finches. I find it very helpful to see what male birds are around when I'm trying to identify the females since many times the males have more distinctive plumage.  Female Red-winged Blackbirds do have plenty of company in getting misidentified. Northern Cardinals, Indigo Buntings, and Baltimore Orioles are just a few species where the females look a lot different than the males. June 2, 2021 at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 136367750, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

A couple months ago I was at the Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve and saw a couple of Green Herons at the pond there. Given it was spring I was wondering if it could have been a breeding pair. Unfortunately I didn't see any interaction between them, and only got pictures of one of them. This one was clearly busy hunting for food; the other was busy hiding in foliage and thwarting my photography attempt. June 2, 2021 at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 136367223, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Talk about your clichés; I noticed this Song Sparrow putting on a show singing his heart out. This is typical behavior for the males, who find a perch and sing to attract the attention of a female. It probably sounded like this .  He probably learned this song from his dad, though if he was raised near another male that could also have influenced his song. June 2, 2021 at Negri Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 136367570, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Back in early June, this Red-winged Blackbird was sizing me up. These birds are pretty close to harmless, though if they mistake you for a predator that's a threat to their nest-bound young they could dive at you. Unfortunately sometimes a nest is close enough to a trail/path I've been attacked briefly. (I survived.) I'm pretty sure there were multiple males involved in the attack. Though the males are archrivals in mating season, it does appear the Red-winged Blackbird community will band together if the threat is considered grave enough, like if I'm walking by with my camera. (I've also seen them harassing an actual threat, driving a Great Blue Heron away from their nest.) In this particular case, I think that I escaped with nothing more than a cold stare from this male. He was certainly mentally prepared for an escalation though. June 2, 2021 at Negri Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 136367420, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Pearl Crescent butterfly that's clearly seen better days. Some of the color has faded, its wing pattern no longer looks sharp, and there's also some parts of the wing missing. While many butterflies only live as adults (this excludes egg/larva/chrysalis stages) for 2-4 weeks, this webpage suggests that Pearl Crescents live much longer than that, 6-12 months. (I wonder if that lifespan variation differs with location; it's easy to imagine them living longer in southern regions.) Though far from our smallest butterfly, the Pearl Crescent's wingspan is only about an inch. I suspect that if they were the size of Monarchs, they'd elicit almost as many "oo's and ah's" as their larger relatives. May 31, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 133215618, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another  Eastern Musk Turtle , and another turtle I believe was looking for a place to lay eggs last May. I was looking down from a bridge and saw a turtle decisively climb out of the water. I scurried down to where the turtle was, and instead of jumping back in the water (which I would suspect if the purpose was to bask in the sun) the turtle seemed to be immersing itself in the vegetation. This turtle lays eggs in a shallow burrow or "shoreline debris". I'm thinking this one was in the process of finding suitable debris. The Eastern Musk Turtle is a relatively small turtle that lays 2-9 eggs. These eggs hatch after 100-150 days, so (assuming eggs were laid) hatching should occur between September 5 and October 25. (October doesn't give them much time to forage before  winter brumation , so maybe the earlier hatching is more likely in New Jersey.) May 28, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 133213809, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

On Memorial Day I was leaving Duke Farms when I spotted something in Dukes Brook. It turned out to be this Green Heron fishing amid the grass. (I'm calling this fishing, though I have no doubt that frogs and other small animal life were on the menu.) Most of the time I don't find Green Herons to be forest green or leprechaun green but something more like a turquoise or teal color. The coloring of this heron is bluer than I'd usually expect, though it's possible that late-day shadows and/or molting are playing into the appearance. If you know where to look, I'm told there are quite a few Green Herons living on the property this summer. May 31, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 133215801, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Don't you just hate it when you find the perfect addition for your home, but you can't get it there? This female Baltimore Oriole was having that exact experience a couple months ago. I don't know whether this was more of a vine or more of a plant root, but it was still attached to a plant and she was unable to pull it free. This sort of material is especially important for our orioles since they're one of the few birds that build nests that hang down from one or more branches. This "natural rope" could probably be a key piece in building a hanging nest. The story has a happy ending. One of the Duke Farms' staff went over and broke this vegetation free, and shortly afterwards Mrs. Baltimore Oriole collected it for her nest. May 31, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 133215444, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)